First he takes a cautious view of the Don Siegelman conspiracy theory by not second-guessing the jury verdict, vouching for the integrity of a Republican prosecutor and her political operative husband, and downplaying the significance of an Alabama woman's sworn statement that mentions Karl Rove.

Then he demands a congressional investigation into whether Siegelman's prosecution was tainted by politics, adding that Siegelman's actions were not criminal.

Then he warms up a room of conservative business types in Birmingham by praising GOP Gov. Bob Riley and quoting Ronald Reagan. In that speech, he advocated a dialing down of the politics of partisan attacks. Interestingly, it was only a month earlier that he wrote the letter about Siegelman's case, suggesting Republican prosecutors may have maliciously orchestrated the conviction of an innocent man.

And in between he gets some heat from the left for being one of 41 Democrats to vote for the Bush administration's expanded wire tapping program.